A COLLINGBOURNE Ducis man ran 86 miles in the dark at the weekend in a bid to complete the Bath Two Tunnel 200 mile Ultra marathon.

Despite Neil Wheeler's heroic attempt to complete the run he pulled up at 86 miles as he knew he couldn't make the half way cut off time at 100 miles.

The Bath Ultra took place last Friday to Sunday, March 8-10, starting at 3.30pm on Friday and ending 55 hours later on Sunday morning with 30 runners taking part. Since the Ultra is in the tunnels the runners are largely in the dark going backwards and forwards through the two tunnels 100 times to create the distance.

Neil, 37, said the darkness was disorientating with the tiredness of running through the night in the tunnels with no sleep breaks leading to hallucinations. The only stops were for cups of tea and the toilet. Only two runners completed the course in the allocated time with Neil dropping out at 4pm on Saturday exhausted. Friends who sponsored his run for Whizz Kidz children's charity have promised to pay up.